A Sumatran rhino has successfully given birth in an Indonesian sanctuary, environmental authorities said, giving a boost to conservation efforts for the critically endangered animal.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there are fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos left in the world, mostly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Borneo.
A rhino named Rosa gave birth to a female calf in Sumatra’s Way Kambas National Park on Thursday after suffering eight miscarriages since 2005, when she was brought from the wild for a breeding program.
“The birth of this Sumatran rhino is very good news for the efforts of the government and its partners to increase the population,” Wiratno, a senior official with Indonesia’s environment ministry, said in a statement Monday.
Like many Indonesians, he only has one name.
The calf, which has not yet been named, brings the number of Sumatran rhinos in Way Kambas Park to eight.
Successful births are rare. The calf’s father, named Andatu, was the first Sumatran rhino born in a sanctuary in more than 120 years.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the Sumatran rhinoceros, the smallest of all rhino species, as critically endangered.
Multiple threats have brought them to the brink of extinction, such as poaching and climate change.
Rhino horn is often illegally traded for traditional Chinese medicine.
